Omar
Quintanilla - Quintanilla was drafted 33rd overall
by the A's in '03 after winning the College World Series with the University of
Texas. Quintanilla ranked among Oakland's top ten prospects for the next couple
seasons after batting .358 and .341 in his first two seasons, respectively.
Unfortunately his bat didn't live up to the early hype. But his glove did and
he's carved out a nice little niche as a Wilson Valdez-esque defensive-minded
backup infielder with the Rockies and Rangers ever since. In 227 major league
games he's posted a .213 career average with 2 homers and 3 stolen bases. http://www.amazinavenue.com/2012/1/31/2753903/taking-inventory-of-the-mets-minor-league-free-agents
2-1-12: - http://www.metsminorleagueblog.com
-
Taylor Whitenton has an average MLB
fastball and improved his control dramatically from 2010 to 2011. A lean 6’3”, he usually sat around 90-91, and
in shorter outings in the Arizona Fall Leagues was sitting 91-93 mph, touching
94. There were scouts who saw the Gnats
in the first half of 2011 who thought Whitenton was the most promising member
of the team’s rotation. He complements the fastball with a slider that has more
depth than horizontal movement and a changeup.
He became much more confidant throwing his secondary pitches in games in
2011 and the change-up passed the slider as his second offering. His over the top delivery gives batters an
unusual angle and the ball seems to hop a little out of his hand. However, many of his strikeouts came on
elevated fastballs, a strategy that might lead to trouble at the higher
levels. The high angle also makes it
hard for him to generate much horizontal movement on his slider. Whitenton cut
his walk rate from 13.8% in 2010 to 10.5% in 2011, or if you prefer to think in
terms of innings, from 5.7 BB/9 to 3.9 BB/9.
While throwing more strikes, his strikeout improved from 23% to 25.9%.
• Dec 15: LHP Chuck James - Another soft-tossing lefty, you may
remember the 30-yr old for his 2+ seasons of league average work in the Atlanta
rotation between '06 and '08. As a prospect he was another former blue-chipper,
ranked by John Sickels as the Braves no. 2 prospect at his peak in '06 -- ahead
of guys like Elvis Andrus and Yunel Escobar. He spent 2011 at Minnesota's
Triple-A affiliate where he was quite good in relief, posting a 2.30 ERA with
over a K/IP and excellent rates against both lefties and righties. Like Olson
he'll audition for a role as a lefty out of the Mets 'pen and I'd say he's got
a pretty good shot out of camp. http://www.amazinavenue.com/2012/1/31/2753903/taking-inventory-of-the-mets-minor-league-free-agents
2-3-12: - http://www.metsminorleagueblog.com/32-rf-cory-vaughn/
- 2011: Cory
Vaughn graduated from Savannah at the All-Star Break after hitting
.286/.405/.408 for Savannah. He then hit
.219/.310/.395 in 63 games for St. Lucie in the second half. There are things in both of those lines that
should be concerning. In Savannah, it
was the lack of power. Historic Grayson Stadium is an extremely difficult place
to hit home runs. However, it’s not just the home runs that he missed. His
extra-base hit percentage plummeted to 6.7% from 10.5% in Brooklyn. Also, he just didn’t seem to drive the ball
with very much authority. Nor did he seem to do much damage against quality
fastballs. In St. Lucie, obviously the concern was his .219 batting average.
However, across both levels, he hit a combined .255/.363/.402 with a .315
BABIP. He aspires to join a group, MLB
right fielders, who averaged .269/.341/.441 in 2011.
2-3-12: - http://www.amazinavenue.com/2012/2/3/2760606/2012-amazin-avenue-top-50-mets-prospects-20-16
LHP Darin Gorski
- Of all the pleasant surprises in the Mets system in 2011, none was
more impressive than the 24-yr old Gorski. The 6'4" lefty was nothing
short of brilliant as he rode roughshod over the Hi-A Florida State League,
posting a superb 9.09 K/9 and an even better 1.88 BB/9. Gorski was simply too
good for the FSL for most of 2011 yet the organization curiously kept him there
all season. Likely this was a result of a numbers game as Binghamton's rotation
was crowded all season. Additionally, Gorski certainly didn't carry the kind of
reputation of a Familia or a Harvey. In fact, the '09 seventh rounder out of
DII Kutztown University was just coming off a 2010 where he posted a 4.58 ERA
bouncing between starting and relief for Savannah and looked like the epitome
of org depth. But that's why you always keep an eye on big lefties; suddenly
the big kid with the soft stuff began throwing harder. Reports had him in the
low 90's by season's end, up from the 87-89 mph range from past seasons. That
new-found differential was more than enough to make his already impressive
change-up downright deadly. Moving forward it's still hard to place him with
the upper echelon pitchers -- he was very old for the FSL -- but armed with
spot-on command and improving stuff from the left side, Gorski suddenly put
himself on the map as a potential back of the rotation guy or lefty out of the
'pen.
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